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From May 20 through June 3rd, there is to be no discussion of US politics. All existing threads on the subject will be closed. People can start new ones once the hiatus is over. See the thread in Trouble Tickets for more info.

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I often listen to music while working or commuting. In the latter case, I use it to stimulate ideas for stories and characters. In both cases lyrics can be distracting. I need instrumentals.

I know squat about bands/genres these days, so I often find music by surfing random recommendations and search results from streaming services. A couple years ago I discovered that searching on "instrumentals" often returns interesting albums with songs that are kind of funky and repetitive. That's exactly what I need.

The other day on a whim I looked up one of the artists, which I almost never do. Turns out he wrote the music for a rap album. The "Instrumentals" version is the rap album without the rapper. When I looked at other instrumental albums I'd bookmarked, I realized it's a thing to release rap music without the vocals. Maybe so other people can rap over them? In any case I felt stupid after I realized it. A lot of these albums I've probably listened to dozens of times as background music, with no idea what they were.

Well, like a lot of people (including a lot of people picking TV soundtracks in the mid-90s), it wasn't until I read a lyrics sheet that I realized that Sarah McLachlan's "Possession" wasn't a sexytimes song. (And, well, then there's the background of the song...)

Similarly, it took looking at a lyrics sheet (or sufficient hearings of the song) to pick up that "You Oughta Know" represented a rather obsessive, stalkery situation rather than simple anger at a dickish ex-lover.